It's been a while since I've read a PD James. Well done, Baroness! This felt like an end to this particular character. Since the author is 90 years old, that would not be surprising, though I hate to "writer her off" to use a particularly bad pun!

I am a long-time fan of P.D. James and always look forward to reading her next release, but The Private Patient reflects an author who is off her game. This is your basic English-country-house mystery, with a secluded location and finite circle of suspects. Not necessarily a bad thing, especially in the hands of someone as masterful as PD James. Unfortunately, it doesn't happen this time.

The plot plods along in a straightforward, linear fashion with few surprises. Events fall into place too conveniently, sometimes relying on sheer coincidence. Dalgliesh and his team simply react to developments instead of seizing control of the investigation. Oh, they interview all the usual suspects, but any juicy information surfaces only when some helpful person mulls it over and decides to volunteer it.

And there are some clumsy and heavy-handed parts. There's the long discussion of the need to assign the murderer a name, in this case Noctis. But subsequently there's only one brief reference to it after all that talk. There’s a bad slip for anyone who knows anything about gardening. The chef and his wife are said to go out into the English garden to pick vegetables for dinner – in the middle of December! I don’t think so. And there’s the unnecessary side plot about Emma’s lesbian friends – which adds nothing to the story other than a feeling that James is trying to keep up with the times.

James also finishes up several character storylines. There are indications throughout this story that it may be the last Dalgliesh novel. I hope that it isn't. There's no other detective like Adam Dalgliesh, and there's no other mystery writer like the great PD James. If we have to leave them, it would be nice for both to go out on a stronger note than this.

Having said that, even a mediocre James is better than most of what is on offer in this genre. ( )

Elegantly written with well draw characters. A "closed-room" whodunit because of the small number of suspects. The body in the freezer was a novel touch. The story gets busy in the second half of the book with all the developments. The side story about the attack on Annie seems contrived and out-of-place. All in all it's a superior mystery and left me looking forward to the next in the series. ( )

P.D. James is an amazing writer. This book, published in her 88th year, shows no diminution in quality from her previous books, and gives lie to those who question the prowess of senior citizens. And what a pleasure generally to read a murder mystery that rises above the level of eighth grade reading and writing!

This book is a continuation of the Adam Dalgliesh mystery series, although like the others, it stands alone quite well.

Dalgliesh (or AD as he is known to his subordinates) is a Commander in London's Scotland Yard (i.e., the Metropolitan Police Service). He and his team are only called in for “important” or “politically sensitive” murders, although AD denies that - in his own estimation at least - any murder victim is ever unimportant.

AD is a private person with a poetic soul who inspires admiration, awe and respect from his crew, which includes Detective Inspector Kate Miskin and Detective Sergeant Francis Benton-Smith. He endeavors to keep his private and professional lives separate, and is largely successful in doing so. He is aware Miskin has always loved him, but they never discuss it; in fact, he is soon to be married to Emma Lavenham, a lecturer in literature at Cambridge.

But even while meeting with his future father-in-law to inform him he wants to marry Emma, he is called away on a case. Rhoda Gradwyn, just after receiving plastic surgery on a facial scar in a posh private facility located in an old Tudor manor house, has been murdered. As in other mysteries by James, there are only a limited number of suspects, and most of them have a motive.

James adds depth to her mysteries with thought-provoking meditations not often encountered in this genre. For example, before her surgery, as Rhoda gazes out her window, James writes:

"Time had fascinated her from childhood, its apparent power to move at different speeds, the dissolution it wrought on minds and bodies, her sense that each moment, all moments past and those to come, were fused into an illusory present which with every breath became the unalterable, indestructible past.”

Or this, as one of the characters, while in a chapel, gazes at the cross:

"Under this symbol battles had been fought, the great seismic upheavals of State and Church had changed the face of Europe, men and women had been tortured, burnt and murdered. It had been carried with its message of love and forgiveness into the darkest hells of human imagining.”

These are sentiments you don’t ordinarily encounter in mysteries, even cozies, and it is this elevation from the usual tired mystery prose for which James is so valued. Otherwise, she doesn’t toy with her formula, which includes lingering loving descriptions of homes and land; insightful glances into the minds of the characters; and the acute observations of the principals on the eternal verities that confront them with every death.

It is not until the end of the book that James diverges a bit from her usual modus operandi to wrap up series elements with a flourish of optimism and paean to love. One might guess that she fears this could be her last opportunity to do so. In any event, she ends with a contemplation of life and death that reconciles the tragedy of the many criminal acts in the world with the only path she deems to offer redemption:

"Deeds of horror are committed every minute and in the end those we love die. If the screams of all earth’s living creatures were one scream of pain, surely it would shake the stars. But we have love. It may seem a frail defence against the horrors of the world but we must hold fast and believe in it, for it is all we have."

Evaluation: James’ facility with the English language is a joy to read. If her mysteries don’t have that urgency of some that keeps you up all night turning the pages, it is all for the best; she is author best savored in small amounts, so you can turn her phrases over and let the flavor of their sentiments blend in your mind. The whole Metropolitan Police Department team is most likeable, and are people with whom you enjoy spending time.

Listing of Adam Dalgliesh Murder Mystery Series in Order:

Cover Her Face by P.D. James

A Mind to Murder by P.D. James

Unnatural Causes by P.D. James

Shroud for a Nightingale by P. D. James

The Black Tower by P. D. James

Death of an Expert Witness by P. D. James

A Taste for Death by P. D. James

Devices and Desires by P. D. James

Original Sin by P. D. James

A Certain Justice by P. D. James

Death in Holy Orders by P. D. James

The Murder Room by P. D. James

The Lighthouse by P. D. James

The Private Patient by P. D. James ( )

I didn't get on with this book, the first PD James I have read ( )